Information Communication Technologies and Agricultural

Journal of Agricultural Economics, Extension & Social Sciences

JAE2S2 Vol. 1(1), 103 – 108, May, 2018 Department of Agricultural Economics & Extension University of Jos, Nigeria, Copyright © 2018 Printed in Nigeria. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved

Available on line: http://www:unijos.edu.ng/jaeess

ISSN No.

Information Communication Technologies and Agricultural Entrepreneurs: Exploring a Nexus 1Faloni, 1

K.B. & 2Kwaghe, O. P.

Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Efe, Nigeria of Mathematics & Computer Science, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, Nigeria

2 Department

ABSTRACT In this 21st century, in order to make agriculture attractive for the Nigerian youth, and also make it relevant amidst other sectors of the economy there is need to incorporate Information and Communication Technology (ICT) into agriculture. With the help of ICT, youths can own their online shops/stores (e-commerce) and make transactions of their agricultural product and services, create employment, provide income and access available market. Knowledge and information are important factors for promoting and improving agricultural development. Since most of the agricultural goods are perishable, the incorporation of ICT will help reduce the rate of postharvest losses and also increase the profit of the farmers. Also, with the help of ICT, consumers can demand for their product and get them delivered at the appropriate time considering the fact that agricultural goods are perishable goods, Hence, the nexus between ICT and agriculture will ultimately benefit the entrepreneur in three different aspects, which include increased income, market prospect, and operational efficiency. Therefore, there is a need to rebrand agriculture and address the fallacious belief that agriculture is for people who cannot make livelihood elsewhere. Key words: ICT, Agricultural, Entrepreneurs and Nexus INTRODUCTION Agriculture is the bedrock of every economy, as we cannot do without feeding and clothing, so we cannot do without agriculture. The sector contributes to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), foreign exchange, reduction of poverty of any nation and also has the largest potential to create employment for the populace. Agriculture is a multifaceted system, covering a wide range of activities and issues such as small-scale agriculture versus largescale agriculture, commodity production versus value added at origin, productivity versus sustainability (Bosch, 2012). African countries have been branded by unfruitful alteration in agricultural sector (Chavula, 2014). “I wish my country never had oil, we`ll have been a better country than we are today” (Professor Wole Soyinka). The discovery of oil in Nigeria by the shell group in 1958 led to the neglect of Agriculture both by the government and by the youth which constitutes the largest proportion of the population. Nigerian youths do not see agriculture as a smart business they rather rely majorly on white collar jobs which are not enough to absorb a millions of graduates produced by the higher institutions of learning every year. Before the civil war in 1973, Nigeria was one of the leading producers of cash crop like Cocoa, Rubber, Palm oil etc., and it is blessed with good climatic conditions and soil very suitable for agriculture, for instance Malaysia got their Palm oil seedlings from Nigeria unfortunately they have over taking from Nigeria the giant of Africa, Malaysia is now one of the leading producer of Palm oil in the world. In this 21st century, in order to make agriculture attractive for the Nigerian youth, and also make it relevant amidst other sectors of the economy there is need to incorporate Information and Communication Technology (ICT) into agriculture. Human as social being cannot do without interacting with each other, this form of information can be either offline (Lectures, face to face discussion) or online (internet, Global System of Mobile Communication GSM). There are lot of facilities to support this, they include email, bulletin, newsletters, Yahoo, messenger, YouTube, agricultural applications, online forum etc. In view of this, most of the agricultural problems such as pests and diseases, storage problems, lack of technical know-how, poor marketing and transportation etc. can be solved when ICT is integrated into agriculture which in turn will help promote value chains of agricultural products and services. With the help of ICT, youths can own their online shops/stores (e-commerce) and make

Corresponding author: [email protected] ; Tel +234(0)8069777453

JAE2S2 1(1), May 2018 transactions of their agricultural product and services, create employment, provide income and access to available market.

Faloni & Kwaghe

Aker and Mbiti (2010) opined that mobile phones can increase access to and use of information, thereby reducing search costs, improving coordination among agents and increasing market efficiency. They further stated that mobile phone-based applications and development projects sometimes known as “m-development” have the prospective to facilitate the delivery of financial, agricultural, health and educational services. According to Espinel (2012), ICT development in agriculture should focus on the small producer. All over the world, ICT have become a vital tools in our day to day activities, we have to find a solution to the lack of internet coverage in rural areas, as well as the coverage of cellular telephony operators in the rural sector. Dey, Prendergast & Newman (n.d.) reported that without the access to information and communication skills the small farmers remain at the sympathy of the global market forces. However, high costs together with infrastructure and context related inhibitors can weakened the advantages of having access to information. Previous studies on Agripreneur and ICT focused on different geographical locations. Ramali, et al (2015) investigated the potential benefits of ICT for youth agro-based entrepreneurs in Malaysia. Also, Dey, et al (n.d.). Focused their studies on how can ICTs be used and appropriated to address agricultural information needs of Bangladeshi farmers. Hence, this study reviewed youth and agriculture, the role of ICT in agricultural sector, challenges and opportunities of using ICT in agriculture and suggestions on how to further improve agricultural activities through ICT. YOUTH AND AGRICULTURE Job prospects for the rural youth is nevertheless a long and laborious process, demanding the interaction between different institutions and partners, both local and international (Juma, 2007). Ahaibwe, Mbowa, & Lwanga (2013) found out that youth involvement in agriculture ium waning, despite the alarming rate of unemployment yet the services and industrial sectors which are growing at a faster rates cannot create enough jobs for the burgeoning youthful labour force. Though there are different prospects for livelihood opportunities in rural areas, most youths find them unattractive and not appealing to be engaged in. Many regard farming as a ‘dirty activity’ due to lack of infrastructures, this has resulted to the fact that agriculture is viewed as an employer of the last resort to young people (Juma, 2007). Sumberg, Anyidoho, Chasukwa, Chinsinga, Leavy, Tadele, Whitfield, & Yaro (2014) reported that educated and ambitious young people do not find small-scale farming an attractive employment or career option, and therefore the challenge is to make them aware of the opportunities available and provide them with entrepreneurial attitudes, skills and the resources needed to move into farming as a business. Traditional leaders say that the youth need to stop spending their time drinking beer, and rather acquire skills in agriculture and farming so that they can involve themselves in food security projects (Mabhena, 2011). Ahaibwe, et al. (2013) reported that the shift from agriculture is inclined towards the services sector and more prominent among the educated youths: youth with at least secondary education rarely engage in agriculture, they further stated that factors like increased agricultural income tend to attract the youth towards farming, this is an indication that if agriculture is transformed from its current largely subsistence nature to a form where the youth are able to sell their output and earn some income, they would not only be gainfully employed but also cut down on the current levels of underemployment being experienced in the sector. Juma (2007) found out that 192 million of people worldwide are unemployed and the underemployment remains prevalent, the estimates indicate that about 35 percent of the world unemployed, are the youth, he listed the causes of unemployment which include globalization, development in information and communication technology, as well as advanced technology that is capital intensive. THE ROLE OF ICT IN AGRICULTURAL SECTOR One of the major agricultural problem is poor access to market information especially in rural areas where farmers are far away from the market. ICT could extensively increase the efficiency of transactions between rural areas and core markets (Lio & Liu, 2006). Since most of the agricultural goods are perishable, the incorporation of ICT will help reduce the rate of postharvest losses and also increase the profit of the farmers. The influence of ICT in sectors like education, fashion, transportation, entertainment, online marketing etc. is making waves because of the integration of ICTs in those sectors. For instance for automobiles, the mechanics now use diagnostic scanner to do troubleshooting instead of losing every boat before detecting the fault on the car and end up damaging more part. Similarly, educational sector in the past people consult books only in the visual library but today the case is different, information can now be accessed online from anyplace. Not only that, online short term courses can be accessed on module, International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publication (INASP), edX, courser, AuthorAID, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), webinar, Youtube, Alison courses etc. With these array of ICTs, precision farming can be employed to optimize crop and livestock management the task of feeding the ever burgeoning population is not going to be an easy task. ICTs, GIS (Geographical Information System), remote sensing, precision farming and many other technologies or processes hold great promises and could be our arsenal in the fight against hunger and in feeding the billions (Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 2013).

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FUNCTIONS OF ICT TOOLS IN AGRICULTURAL SECTOR Sensors can be used in the field to detect disease, drones to analyze crops, open data to understand weather pattern. Also, if used in transporting agricultural goods, a thermometer can be used to measure the temperature of foodstuffs to reduce waste (Berti & Mulligan, 2015). A cumulative number of people in the developing world, now have access to modern information and ICT, such as mobile and smart phones, tablets, television, and radio, as well as internet and digital services such as mobile banking or market prices and weather forecasts (Laureys, 2016). ICTs like digital soil maps provide extensive soil information that can be stored and accessed online. GPS, satellite imagery, remote sensors, and aerial images help to assess soil and land variations, mobile applications and the Internet can disseminate the information quickly (Pehu Belden & Majumdar, 2011). The use of radio to broadcast development issues is not new, research has shown that 80 to 90 percent of rural households have radio. However, community radio is relatively new, and over the past decade several community radio stations have been established around the world to help women and marginalized groups to build networks and gain access to information on health, livelihoods, farming, weather, and markets, as well as to educate communities on democracy, citizen rights, and gender issues. Radios are relatively cheap and easily repaired and widely available, even in the poorest regions. In several African countries, radio broadcasts are the primary medium for communicating political and religious information (Castrén & Pillai, 2011). Beneficial Roles of ICT Tools in Some Countries A small study in Morocco found that farmers with mobile phones increasingly dealt directly with wholesalers or larger-scale intermediaries than smaller intermediaries (Ilahiane, 2007). In Tanzania’s Lake Zone, farmers from 10 districts who participate in the Digital Early Warning Network have been trained to recognize symptoms of cassava mosaic disease and cassava brown streak disease. Armed with mobile phones, farmers send out monthly text messages to researchers about disease incidence and receive disease control advice in return (Ogbodo, 2009). In Turkey, local weather forecasts transmitted through SMS provided very timely warnings of impending frosts or conditions that favored pests (Donovan, 2010). In Namibia, ICTs are used to monitor water, pollution, desertification, climate, and population parameters, ensuring the availability of relevant information in planning, decision making, and coordination processes (Bertolini, 2004). Mobile phones can serve as the backbone for early warning systems to mitigate agricultural risks and safeguard agricultural incomes. In the recent past, productivity of most crops in India has started festering and growth in farmer’s incomes has not been in tandem with the overall economic growth of the country (Ali & Kumar, 2011). In order to feed the mushrooming population, and at the same time, to avoid adverse social unrest due to increasing rural–urban divide, improved availability of information and knowledge is expected to result in better decision-making which ultimately will lead to increased production and higher incomes for the farmers. Hassan et al. (2009) found out that majority of internet users among Malaysian agro-based entrepreneurs were among the “senior” farmers’ while majority of them had lower education they opined that it is essential to encourage more university graduates to be involved in agricultural sector since education plays an important role in increasing agriculture productivity. They further reported that E-mail and surfing website will have big impact on agricultural productivity since majority of Malaysian agrobased entrepreneurs use these two internet applications thereby enhancing their networking in getting technical information on agriculture. Ramali et al. (2015) opined that there is need for entrepreneurs to increase their knowledge of ICT and explore technologies in order to boost their businesses. They further highlighted the benefits ICT offered to youth agro-based entrepreneurs which include improving operational efficiency, increasing income, strengthening marketing aspects and creating new opportunities. Agriculture is becoming increasingly knowledge-intensive, industries have started investing money and tech talent into farming—the world’s oldest industry. Digital soil maps, remote sensing, and global positioning system (GPS) are critical tools for modern farmers, “Big data” for precision agriculture increases yields and efficiency. These high-tech tools mostly benefit big farms that can make large investments in technology, but there are also many innovative ways in which disadvantaged people use digital technologies, such as basic mobile phones (Laureys, 2016). CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF USING ICT Rural farmers are confronted with major setbacks such as negative effects of climate change, lack of adequate extension and advisory services, storage and processing equipment, lack of access to agriculture finance, weather forecasting, efficient monitoring methods, rural infrastructure such as roads, and irrigation systems as well as inadequate trade and marketing information systems. Lack of agricultural information has been attributed to the inability of smallholder farmers to switch from subsistence to commercial agriculture. However, success in greater application of ICT in agriculture will require addressing impediments to adoption and diffusion, such impediments include the lack of awareness, low literacy, infrastructure deficiencies (e.g. lack of electricity to charge electronic gadgets), language and cultural barriers in ICT usage. More so, guaranteed growth in agriculture means offering opportunities for improved livelihoods to the rural communities. New approaches and practices as well as renewed commitments to implementing policies are required to resolve some of the challenges to boost farmers’ production and guarantee sustained income levels. The African farmer relies not only on good government decisions but also on intermediate agencies such as nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), extension services, and producer associations, which are more likely to have

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Chavarria (2012) opined that lack of investment in ICT tools (hardware, software, intranet, web, cellphones, etc.) is not the main cause of the digital lag in public agricultural institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean, the perception of a low impact is due to the fact that at the initial stages, ICTs are mainly used in the management and administration of the central institution and are not directly incorporated into the activities of the institutions that provide services to the agricultural sector. The rapid upswing of electronic commerce all over the world which is been referred to as a global village is at an alarming rate, within few seconds at your own comfort you can make some online transactions which include buying of clothes, shoes, books, home appliances and even booking for an hotel or travel tickets. If ICT are incorporated into agriculture it will help in strengthening agricultural industries and also proffer solutions to agricultural problem of low efficiency. It will also enhance the marketability of agricultural product and can help the agricultural supply and demand chain which starts from procurement to, processing, storage, packaging, logistics, transportation, distribution, and sales. Furthermore, with the help of ICT, consumers can demand for their product and get them delivered at the appropriate time (considering the fact that agricultural goods are perishable goods), which in turns will benefit the entrepreneur. These benefit can be major classified into three: increase the market prospect owing to the distribution speed, consumer satisfaction and convenience. Secondly, operational efficiency based on request: a farmer can farm a large hectares of land for an industry who is in need of a certain crop. Lastly, increased income for farmers by weeding out middle men partially or completely out of the supply chain. ICT helps answers questions such as, (1) “How do buyers and sellers find each other, and at what prices the sellers are ready to sell the product?” and (2) “Is it better to store the produce or sell it immediately?” This create opportunities to make a better decisions, support the functioning of markets—and hence the availability of food— and also increase income (Bertolini, 2004). CONCLUSION The impact of technology on our everyday lives and interaction is undeniable; however, the world faces the challenge of increasing production to feed a mushrooming population whereas there is a continual decreasing in the availability of natural resources. Although, ICTs technologies will not directly proffer solutions to agripreneurial challenges it can make a substantial contribution. It is generally established that the accessibility of apposite information is an effective means of for feeding famine. Information on the variability of food production, for example, is needed to plan and accumulate food stocks (Bertolini, 2004). The impact of ICTs in agricultural sector would cannot be overemphasis but to mention but a few they includes: enhancing agricultural production, improving market access, capacity-building and empowerment, availability of timely information, decision making, increase income and also enhance the sustainability of safe and nutritious food amidst other possibilities. Therefore, there is a need to rebrand agriculture and address the fallacious belief that agriculture is for people who cannot make livelihood elsewhere. RECOMMENDATIONS  Education and training: Outside of literacy itself, Computer literacy is one of the biggest challenges to ICT development in rural areas, Public extension services can help meet the need for education and training in the use of ICTs.  The Government should subside the cost of ICT tools for peasant farmers  There should be a clear definition/identification of problem, access the information needs and compare possible solutions.  Determine the best entry points and appropriate technology  Design culturally appropriate information  Relevant and adequate information on the ICT applications  Applications using mobiles phones, radio and the internet can also be deployed

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